Shots in the Dark

The fascinating story of the 1963 deaths of Boston mobster Rocco Balliro's girlfriend and her son in a police shootout . . . a real page-turner.-Dennis N. Griffin, bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of a Casino Mobster On a frigid winter night in early 1963, Rocco Anthony Balliro and a pair of associates stormed a darkened apartment on the outskirts of Boston and were immediately embroiled in a deadly shootout with several unseen assailants. Unbeknownst to Rocco at the time, the men who returned his fire were several Boston police officers, waiting in ambush for him. It was, as Rocco later described it, a hastily planned rescue mission that went downhill in a hurry. In the aftermath, his beloved girlfriend and her toddler son lay dead. Author Daniel Zimmerman, the woman's nephew, was granted exclusive access to Balliro in prison and met with him over the course of 2 years to hear his side of the story. This book, which chronicles the events of that night, Balliro's trial, and his attempt to clear his name is a true crime story with a local twist.-Patch